Our Gilded Abode

Frugal Craft Space - File Cabinet Makeover

After years of having our kitchen island serve as my craft table, I am excitedly creating a craft space in our guest room where craft supplies and equipment can remain set up and ready to go! I envisioned a large craft table supported by two 2-drawer file cabinets. The cabinets provide great storage, but were less than attractive and desperately needed a makeover.

The first criteria for the new craft space was to be frugal and to use items we already had on hand whenever possible - basically, the same criteria for any project we undertake. No surprise there!

Supplies:

Two metal 2-drawer file cabinets
Four decorative drawer pulls
Zinsser 123 Primer
Latex Paint
12 large wood paint stir sticks
Paint brush
Mitre saw box or hand saw
Loctite Power Grab adhesive
220 grit sandpaper
Wood filler

We already had one file cabinet and located another of the exact same height at a local thrift store for only $15. Along with being thrifty, an added bonus is that older metal file cabinets are made really well and provide sturdy and secure support for heavy tabletops.

Gave them a quick cleaning and lightly sanded to rough the paint up and smooth any scratched areas.

I also removed all the hardware on the front of the drawers because I wanted to add decorative drawer pulls and hopefully have the cabinets look more like furniture and less like industrial office equipment.

Hubby drilled holes for the decorative drawer pulls I bought at Hobby Lobby. The four pulls cost a little over $8.

Next I painted the cabinets and drawer fronts with a coat of primer - Zinsser 1-2-3. This stuff is amazing - is thick and goes on smoothly and evenly - great coverage. I've used it on metals, wood and plastic with great results.

This is where the project took a slight detour. Instead of following my instinct and immediately framing out the drawers, I decided to try covering the drawers with birch paper. Love the look of birch - it had to turn out great, right?

Well ... it didn't look "bad," just not the look I was after in the space that I had envisioned. Lesson learned!

To get back on track, I painted over the birch paper and let it dry.

Then I grabbed our handy little mitre saw to cut the wood stir sticks to frame out the front of each drawer. No fancy angled mitre cuts - just straight cuts.

Mitre Saw Box

The 5 gallon size wood stir sticks are surprisingly straight. We had several, but not nearly enough to frame all the drawers. Took a trip to the paint department at Lowe's and asked to buy 12 of them - did not expect them to just give that quantity to me at no cost. Surprisingly, that's exactly what happened! A pleasant surprise!

When all the wood pieces were cut, I adhered them to the drawer fronts using Loctite Power Grab adhesive. This is another product that I use a lot for all types of materials. It instantly adheres, but is repositionable for up to 15 minutes. And, it comes in a convenient resealable tube - so much easier than a bulky caulk gun. No mess and no waste.

Loctite Power Grab

After letting the adhesive dry, I filled any gaps with wood filler, let dry and sanded. Then it was finally time for paint!

I used a white interior latex satin paint from my stash - in Sherwin Williams Downy.

And, the cabinets are now exactly as I had first envisioned - fresh and clean and ready to be filled with fun craft supplies.

Hope you enjoyed this little sneak peek at my new frugal craft space and I'll be back to share how we installed the table top, along with more of the "in progress" details!

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas! I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

(I was not compensated in any way for this post -

the opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience.)

Shared with:

A Stroll Thru Life

The Interior Frugalista
Cozy Little House
Julie's Lifestyle
Refresh Restyle
Joyful Homemaking
Weekend Craft
Suburban Simplicity
Simple Nature Decor
Savvy Southern Style
Mad In Crafts

DIY Robin Eggs

Nothing beats the sounds of Spring - birds singing and searching for the perfect branch on which to build their nests. Although ... branches really aren't necessary - we find nests in our garage in our rubber boots!

Regardless of where they build their nests, the sight of brightly colored blue eggs in a nest is such a thrill. To bring a touch of Spring indoors, these DIY robin eggs are fun to make.

Supplies:

Mini plastic eggs
Blue spray paint
Brown spray paint
Cardboard box

This is one of those projects that take longer to explain than to actually do it. :)

Just place the plastic eggs in a cardboard box and with one hand, tilt the box to turn the eggs while using your other hand to spray them with blue paint. You can do many eggs at once and when thoroughly covered with paint, gently separate the eggs so that sides aren't touching. Let dry.

When dry, repeat the process but lightly spray with brown paint to create brown dots. Let dry. Note: If your brown spray paint does not provide a splotched effect, you can also use regular brown craft paint and a stiff paint brush. Lightly load the brush with brown paint and using your finger, flick the brush bristles to "spray" paint onto the eggs.

And, that's it - you're left with pretty little robin eggs that you can display in a decorative bowl, nest, or a clear apothecary jar.

Wishing you a happy Spring!

Thank you to Kathryn at The Dedicated House for featuring this project!

Shared with:

Savvy Southern Style

Cozy Little House
Holy Craft
Simple Nature Decor
Making it in the Mountains
Weekend Craft
The Dedicated House
Joyful Homemaking
A Delightsome Life
A Creative Princess
Craftaholics Anonymous
Life with Lorelai
Mila's Little Things
Craft-O-Maniac
The Dedicated House - Anything Blue
The Interior Frugalista
Across the Boulevard
Dear Creatives
Thoughts from Alice
DIY Vintage Chic
The Chicken Chick
Julie's Lifestyle
Suburban Simplicity

Painted Pantry Door

I enjoy our home projects so much that I go from one to another and forget to blog about them! Last week I added a little pop to our white pantry door by painting it black.

Here's the before:

To prep the door, I cleaned it with diluted Mrs. Meyers Lemon Verbena Multi-surface Concentrate. Smells great and cleans really well. When door surface was dry, it was time to paint.

My paint of choice for this project was Olympic One Paint & Primer in Black Magic interior satin latex.

Olympic One Black Magic Paint & Primer

For me, painting a door has always been a bit tricky - which areas do you paint first, in which direction and in which order?

Fortunately, I found a great source of how-to info at Love, Pomegranate House. Talitha shares a wonderful diagram that shows step-by-step instructions:

Love, Pomegranate House

Using a brush for the inset areas and a roller for all other areas of the door, the first coat of paint went on easily. The dark paint on a white surface always looks a bit scary after the first coat.

Thankfully, the second coat looked beautiful and filled in all the splotchy light areas.

We have lots of black accents in our home and I like the way the door now highlights them throughout our open concept floor plan. And, against the white door frame, the color really pops.

We like it so much that I'm now planning to paint the inside of our front door as well - the black door will look nice at the end of our long foyer.

Have you painted any of your interior doors a color other than white? Do you enjoy them?

Thank you to Kathryn at The Dedicated House for featuring this project!!!

Shared with:

Thoughts from Alice
The Interior Frugalista
Dwellings - The Heart of Your Home
Karen's Up on the Hill
Create with Joy
Skip to My Lou
Cozy Little House
DIY ShowOff
A Stroll Thru Life
Joyful Homemaking
A Creative Princess
The Dedicated House
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Up to Date Interiors
Life with Lorelai
Thoughts from Alice
The Chicken Chick

DIY Console Table Reveal

Last weekend we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and turned our garage into a workshop as we measured, measured again, cut, assembled and sanded the boards that would result in this beauty ....

To say that we like it is an understatement!

This journey began with the need to replace our drastically undersized original console table and you can read more about that HERE.

Our inspiration was Ana White's Rustic X Console. We followed Ana's wonderful free plans to construct the frame using 2" x 2" and 2" x 4" boards. These were the only boards we had to purchase, as we had the two shelf boards (1" x 12" each) and three tabletop boards (2" x 6" each) on hand.

The finished dimensions are a whopping 76-1/2" x 18" x 32" - a little over 6 feet, making it much more appropriately sized for our 18' long wall (our original console table was only 42".)

You'll notice a few additional foyer changes as well. The wall was refreshed by adding horizontal painted stripes. Read more about that HERE.

A bamboo typography mat for our front door also received a revamp and details are HERE.

Now for the table build ... please be prepared for lots of pics!

We started around noon on Saturday and completed the build on Sunday evening. Add in a couple of days for finish sanding, staining and adding hardware, and the new table was cozy and comfy in the foyer by midweek.

Be sure to check out Ana White's site for a detailed supply list, cut list and plans.

You'll notice that we opted to not include the "X" on the sides of the table.

We made lots of pocket screw holes with the Kreg jig.

Hubby veered from the plans a bit and crafted shelf side braces that allow the shelves to drop into the braces. He's creative that way! :)

We then installed the shelves and at that point, I couldn't resist moving it to the foyer to determine if the finished size was as we envisioned. Fortunately, it was!

After the build, the next decision was whether to stain, paint or a combination of both.

We stained the tabletop with General Finishes Gel Stain in Java.

Honestly, this is amazing stuff! No drips, spills or mess - it's a thick gel and goes on super nicely - just apply with a soft cloth or a brush and wipe off excess. Let dry and you can apply as many coats as you like until you reach the color intensity you desire. For this project, only one application of the stain was needed - it provided a rich dark tone, but was transparent enough to allow the wood grain to show through.

In the end, we went with stain for the entire table and love it - it adds warmth and contrast against the light neutral striped wall.

We also added hardware - corner braces - to the tabletop. To find out how we gave the bright zinc plated hardware a distressed look, check out my post HERE.

Here are a few closeups of the stain and wood grain:

The round mirror on the wall was another DIY - made with wood shims.

And, one last glimpse ...

As you can see, the table decor is constantly being changed and rearranged. I hope you enjoyed seeing how bare pine boards were transformed into a beautiful and useful piece of furniture for our home!